Comprehensive Analysis of the Expression, Prognosis, and Biological Significance of FSCN family in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: FSCN (Fascin) is an actin-binding protein that plays a critical role in cell migration and invasion, contributing to tumor metastasis. However, there is little known about the function of FSCN family in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) Methods We utilized the UALCAN, GEPIA, Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, cBioPortal, STRING, and TIMER databases to investigate the transcription level, genetic alteration and biological function of FSCNs in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients, and their association with the prognosis value and immune cell infiltration in patients with ccRCC. Results Results showed that the expression of FSCN1 and FSCN3 was markedly upregulated in patients with ccRCC, while the expression of FSCN2 displayed an opposite trend, which were the same as the experiments. Furthermore, the expression levels of FSCNs were associated with pathological stage, molecular subtypes and tumor grade. We noticed that the expressions of FSCNs were statistically correlated with the immune cell infiltration in ccRCC. Higher expression levels of FSCN1 and FSCN3 were associated with worse overall survival (OS) and progression-free interval (PFI) of patients bearing ccRCC. Univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated that FSCN2 was an independent risk factor for OS time in ccRCC. Furthermore, mutations in FSCNs were significantly associated with poor OS and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with ccRCC. The FSCNs were involved in pathways including focal adhesion, endocytosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, regulation of actin cytoskeleton. Conclusion Our results indicated that FSCN2 might serve as an independent prognostic factor for OS of ccRCC and the FSCN1 and FSCN2 can be used as favorable biomarkers for predicting clinical outcomes in ccRCC.